Joe Eula

Master of Twentieth-Century Fashion Illustration

About the Book

The first, and sure to be definitive, collection of the iconic work of Joe Eula, the foremost illustrator of the late twentieth century, featuring more than 200 gorgeous black-and-white and full-color sketches and illustrations, the majority of which have never been published before.

An illustrator, graphic artist, costume designer, stage director, and tastemaker, Joe Eula lived at the center of the high fashion and art worlds. In a career that spanned five decades, he sketched for every major couture house, from Chanel and Givenchy, to Dior and Yves Saint Laurent. He illustrated album covers and/or show posters for Miles Davis, Liza Minnelli, Marilyn Monroe, and the Supremes. He designed costumes for the choreographer Jerome Robbins. He directed a television special with Lauren Bacall. In the 1960s, with the photographer Milton Greene, he formed one of the most progressive studios of the era, responsible for producing tantalizing images—including Faye Dunaway as a stylish Bonnie Parker—in magazines like Life. His friendships were no less extensive, from Coco Chanel, with whom he used to treat to movie dates in Paris, to Andy Warhol, Bette Midler, and Elsa Peretti. If modernity was the hallmark of Halston’s fashion in the 1970s, it was Eula, as the label’s creative director, who helped clarify it with his spare drawings and fluent ideas.

This stunning volume brings together a selection of his finest work. New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn’s extensive introduction illuminates Eula’s development as an artist and his contributions to the worlds of fashion, design, arts, and entertainment, relating numerous personal anecdotes, interviews with those who knew him well as well as citations from his personal writings.

Lovers of fashion and illustration will delight in the range of art and the famous clientele on display in this collectible volume.

Book Description

The first published collection of the work of Joe Eula, one of the twentieth century's greatest fashion illustrators

With text by fashion journalist Cathy Horyn, Joe Eula: Master of Twentieth-Century Fashion Illustration brings together a selection of more than 200 gorgeous black-and-white and full-color sketches and finished illustrations from prolific graphic designer and illustrator Joe Eula, whose career spanned more than fifty years. This landmark volume sheds light on Eula's development as an artist and his contributions to the worlds of fashion, design, and arts and entertainment—through numerous interviews, anecdotes, and Horyn's personal reminiscences of their friendship—while placing his work within the critical context of those fields as they evolved from the early 1950s until his death in 2004.

This extraordinary collection presents runway and showroom sketches as well as advertising work for Chanel, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Dior, Geoffrey Beene, Bill Blass, Rudi Gernreich, and Charles James, as well as for Halston, for whom Eula was the creative director during the 1970s, the era of the designer's greatest influence. There are album covers, portraits, and show posters for Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Marlene Dietrich, Eartha Kitt, Liza Minnelli, Shirley MacLaine, and the Supremes, as well as costume designs for Jerome Robbins's ballets. Also included are sketches of Diana Vreeland, Helena Rubinstein, Coco Chanel, Andy Warhol, Twiggy, Elsa Peretti, and Halston, and work for Studio 54, Regine's, and Elaine's.

Eula was the very essence of a maverick American spirit. All his life he did what pleased him, guided by his incredible eye, fluent ideas, and spare drawings. This book captures the essence of the acute visual clarity, creativity, decisiveness, and great personal energy that fused so brilliantly in his quick, sure hand.

With more than 200 full-color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations

Educator and Librarian Resources

Critical Praise

“Horyn . . . is an exceptional writer and biographer. You needn’t have an interest in fashion illustration to be absorbed by her profile of Eula.” — Fashionista

“If you are a fan of fashion illustration, fashion history, or just a fashion aficionado, then rush out and give a gift to yourself or someone similar. This book will offer countless readings and hours of enjoyment, delivering much more than just pretty pictures.” — New York Journal of Books

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